Royce Strategic Advisory Board (SAB): call for applications for membership

Deadline for applications: 17 November 2020

Target commencement date: 4 January 2021

About the Henry Royce Institute

The Henry Royce Institute (Royce) is the UK’s national institute for advanced materials research and innovation. Royce brings together world-leading academics from across the UK, and works closely with industry to ensure translation and commercialisation of fundamental materials research. With its hub at The University of Manchester, the Institute is a partnership of nine leading institutions – the universities of Cambridge, Liverpool Leeds, Oxford, Sheffield, Imperial College London, the UK Atomic Energy Authority and National Nuclear Laboratory. In 2020 as the Institute transitions from a set-up to operational phase, it has established a clear vision around Advanced Materials for a Sustainable Society. Royce’s accompanying mission is to support and grow world-recognised excellence in UK materials research, accelerating commercial exploitation and delivering positive economic and societal impact for the UK through:

1. Enabling national materials research, foresighting, collaboration and strategy
2. Providing access to the latest facilities and capability
3. Catalysing industrial collaboration and exploitation of materials research
4. Fostering materials science skills development, innovation training and outreach

The Strategic Advisory Board (SAB) provides independent advice to the Governing Board (GB), the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Chief Scientist (CS), on the programme of activities, the provision of technical facilities, and the strategy and operation of Royce as a national institute for materials science and engineering. Key focus areas are:

1. Overseeing the operation of the facilities and access to these for the materials community.
2. Ensuring the quality and timeliness of scientific output.
3. Supporting the role of the Institute in shaping the UK’s Advanced Materials landscape and in its role as a catalyst for materials innovation across industry and academia.

The SAB provides expert advice to the Royce executive officers and acts as a critical friend to them, along with providing advice to the GB on how successfully the vision and original goals are being achieved, including the evaluation of any metrics.

The Board’s commitment to its diversity goals will be an important factor in its decision process (see ‘Diversity’ header below for more information). Applications are encouraged from groups currently underrepresented on the Board. We are also particularly keen to have representation from early career practitioners in the field, from both industry (in particular the SME community) and academia, who can bring a unique view to the Board.

Candidates will be judged relative to their career stage on the following criteria:

• National/international standing in an area of materials related research.
• Interest in the promotion of the field of materials science as a whole.
• Understanding and experience of industry-academia collaborations and, where appropriate, commercialisation of materials concepts.
• Expertise in one of the following Royce research areas: Biomedical Materials, Atoms to Devices, Materials for Energy Efficient ICT, Chemical Materials Design.

Appointees will be expected to attend a minimum of four meetings per year. Each meeting typically lasts 4 hours and requires 2 hours of preparation. Members are paid a fee for each meeting they attend and, when attending physical meetings, are reimbursed for travel and subsistence expenses.

Please note that applications from individuals employed by one of the Royce Partner or Associate institutions cannot be considered.

Term of office: The appointment will be for 3 years, with the possibility of extending for 1 year and/or of being extended for a second term.

Meeting dates: The SAB meets a minimum of five times a year. Meetings are hosted at one of the Royce Partner sites.

Diversity

Royce welcomes applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability. All appointments will be made on merit, following a fair and transparent process.

To apply, please send your CV and a short covering statement indicating your suitability for the role (maximum of 4 pages in total for both documents) to Jessica Shaw on jessica.shaw-3@manchester.ac.uk. Jessica can also be contacted should you require further information on Royce or the process.

The deadline for applications is 17^th November 2020. It is expected that interviews will take place between 2^nd and 9^th December 2020.